for this later coming of the Bridegroom by the pouring glory of his Spirit shall go in with him to the Marriage and not all they but properly the wise virgins shall be thus immediately invested from heaven * See Parag 4. Matth. 25.10 what may be afterwards by the sons of the Church we leave to the times to manifest If you will bring all our new-stated Churches to this touch-stone you may finde them to be of a different metal from the true and however so neer the primitive they seem to be in the outward shell yet in reality to be grounded upon another foundation to wit upon believers not possessed with such a power visibly sent down from heaven Now that faith or the profession thereof without such a divine call and spiriting cannot be a ground-work for stating Churches I shall further prove by these following Arguments 1. Faith must foot on a call as done in obedience to the heavenly voice but now there is no call for visible Church-marriage as is declared in our first Rule and no call no faith nay it wanting that must bottom upon our own call name and time which is presumptuous disobedience 2. God having promised to spirit this again faith must rely upon the same promise till fulfilled and not upon its own power the hundred and twenty were believers and yet begun not any constitution by vertue of that but waited till the keys were given 3. Profession alone can no more give life unto Ordinances from which the glory of God is departed then it can infuse a living soul into a dead carcase It is God's sole prerogative to create their breath of life which he will do in his own season according to what he hath promised Faith and profession are but effects and to attribute such a causal vertue to them is to confound and turn the causes upside down and to set the creature in the place of his Creator 4. This pretended saith void of the call and promise of God and the vital influence of its prime original cause is but a meer work a bare creature-foundation by far too weak to lay a Gospel-fabrick upon and being but humane must in divine things be bottomless and whether the smoke or dispensation arising thence be not then that of the bottomless pit we leave it to wise men seriously to consider We are sure that this is the proper distinguishing character to difference the true from the false The true begins with the smoke or winde Gods glory inspiring the follow the keys opening and entering and by that it becomes a spiritual building the false begins with the key the smoke ensueth and thence is it a building made with hands grounded on tradition Rev. 9.1 2. The true is as smoak descending from heaven the false as smoke ascending from an humane bottom I shall now speak a little to you of the Separation who are modeled into the form of stated Churches I know there are many precious Saints amongst you in whom the character of Jesus Christ is printed and confess that some of you have been instruments to bring to light some solid Truths and prepared way for greater You hold a Separation from all National Hierarchies according to the Scriptures have in part cleared that the Beast reacheth further then the Papal Chair of Rome have renounced prelacies and precedencies have vindicated the consciences of the godly from the Laws and Canons of Courts and Classes maintain the Gospel to come in the liberty and power of the Spirit have rightly pleaded that members of true Gospel-Churches must at least have a visible Saintship have to this day been real and cordial in that noble Cause beginning in our ends of the earth For these good things found amongst you I protest in the presence of the great Tribunal I am obliged by the bond of entire affection and desire your spiritual welfare as my own salvation Yet I must not dare not flatter or dissemble in matters divine but because I love I am compelled to deal plainly and faithfully resting confident that those who are truely pious will desire to see their combustible works burn by the fiery trial of the Vials What I shall expostulate with you I have already convinced in my self Consider seriously whether consultations be not weak grounds to bottom Gospel-Churches or whether the primitive the patern you labour to model by was ever laid upon such sandy foundations or whether these your actings do not contradict many of your own tenents before named Did the Kingdom of God in that first day come by observations or by the descending majesty of the Spirit Or will Christ think you be less glorious in this later Reformation then in the former View I beseech you the Scriptures treating of the dignity of this later marriage Or if you cannot search primarily into the cause look into the effects that follow these your undertakings For knowledge in the ordinary way comes to us secundum posterius so that by those signes or symptomes which break out in manifestation we are directed to look into the fountains whence they issue forth Why was there so great efficacy in the outward order of the primitive Government but because it proceeded originally from the manifest blast of the Spirit Why is there so little in your externalities if not because arising from weak humane principles You that are most discerning do you not see too much of formality too little of power Nay why was that one and the same in every particular drawing the flock of Christ into a general unity unless because it footed in the Spirit which by its illuminating glory virtual operation and perswasive attraction congregated the whole body of Sions sons unto it Why are yours manifold disagreeing and occasions of dividing the Saints but because basing on obscure carnal apprehensions Experience informs us that your various constitutions have rent the Lords people in pieces and are as so many walls to keep them asunder and that which divides is carnal Tell us To which of you shall we joyn to come to the general Assembly Yea to what form shall we come and not in the very act of sitting down sequester our selves from the major part of the godly By a narrow search you may finde your union to ground in division your gathering in scattering View Ezek. 34.5 6 and compare them to your divisions Peter James and John chosen vessels were like in their minority to fall into the same relapse Matth. 17.4 Master if thou wilt let us build tabernacles but alas they knew not what they said understood not that Gospel-tabernacles were not to be made with hands but by the powerful dispensation of the Spirit Much like to this do you Let us build temples let us erect Gospel-Churches Well if you must needs be doing the proper work of your Master observe what censure he gives of such designes Matth. 24.23 24 26. Iuke 17.20 21 22 23. Mark rightly the secret chambers
if Episcopacy be to be plucked up root and branch which you pleaded then no reliques of your Classical government will be left remaining much less will it be granted that you sit in the seat of judicature to adjudge all besides your selves to be Heresies Sects c. or that you have any authority given from heaven by humane force to captivate them to your wills and canons The Independents are in many respects in their way neerer to the Kingdome of Heaven then the Classical men and if you would not willingly subjectly your consciences to the separation which power they defie to own why should there be such high indeavors to imbondage them In this you are declared to be far beneath a legall spirit which teacheth to doe to others as you would be dealt withall by them Are not their consciences as tender as yours Are they not as pious and dear to GOD as upright to their neighbour as serviceable and faithful to the State as cordial and real to our publike Cause And why should they not with others partake in that common priviledge purchased by the expence of many of their deare lives It was not long since your selves were under the Bishops rod and then such a liberty would have been sweet and gratefully accepted but now nothing will satisfie unless you may in their steads lord it over your fellow-brethren The precept is ordinary yet profitable Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Let the ruines of other tyrants teach you more wisdome and moderation In the next place you come unto me and our walk in particular in which to pass by other phopperies opprobrious dealings and false suppositions as not worth spending inke paper and time upon we shall only take notice of two passages The first is your calling it a Sect and in the title of your Book a Schisme Answ A Sect is a renting a Schism a cutting off or dividing from the truth now whether we or you be renters we leave to the tryal of the Word It hath been the usual policy of Satan to brand the new springings forth of truths by such opprobrious titles Thus dealt the Jews of old with the Gospel Acts 28.22 Chap. 24.5 14. and separation being now that which God calls his people to walk in we believe this charge of yours will be found to be as untrue and calumnious as was theirs and to come from the same spirit We should have expected no other language from the mouth of a Pope or Bishop but wonder to hear it from one who would rank himself amongst the godly However we regard not the censure of your papal chaire as being neither discovered to be what you stile us nor discouraged by such disgraceful Characters for we are not ashamed to bear the rebukes of Christ Your indeavors this way will prove but bare Essays whose births may be vanity and shame at conclusion Secondly You come to our company whom you call unstable souls and defame their assemblings by base scurrilous verses out of Ovid the very language of hell and unfit to be written by a chaste pen much more unmeet to be applyed to a godly or hopeful people For my own particular as I have freely received so I freely dispense the word and deny none to hear who are freely drawn as being sensible of the power of God who may chuse the mean and base things in the worlds esteem to confound the noble Notwithstanding were the same people with you many would be counted pretious Saints others very faire commers on though now from a root of bitterness they are so greatly vilified Such virulent invectives tend but to the fulfilling of the Prophecies which foretell that the meetings of these returners shall bear a reproach and burden Ezek. 34.16 Mica 4.76 7. Zeph. 3.18 albeit in short time they shall have a praise and a fame in every land where they have been put to shame their gathering or congregating being by the Lord Jesus ver 19. I cannot in charity think that these came simply from your self but from the instigation of some others whose spirits are compounded of gall and vinegar and have dipt your pen with the cruel venome of Asps We are sure such ribaudry becomes not the gravity of gray hairs much less of one esteemed an ancient professor It seems their throne being touched their kingdom waxing dark and people leaving them they begin to accomplish what is spoken Revel 16.10 11. The Lord open the eyes of their understandings that they many no longer be found fighters against God Before we pass from hence we shall mind you of a seasonable observation In the Primitive time there was an outward Jerusalem figured by Hagar the bond-woman whose zealous children under high pretences of holiness were the most desperate enemies to such who by their free Gospel-walk declared themselves to be the off-spring of Jerusalem from above So now there is an outward rejected court Rev. 11.2 and thereupon another inslaving motherhood and those who are over-rigid in those externalities and stand most upon them are like to prove the greatest enemies to such who by their practise of separation manifest themselves to be children of liberty and aim most at spirituality But leaving this we shall speak something of our first Letter after the receit whereof as you affirme it was noised that I had thereby blown up c. Answ If there were any such report the sound of it was not loud enough to come to my ears till I read it in your Epistle This I am sure of it was a private Letter never intended by the writer to come publikely abroad in the world and comprised but a light and hasty draught of my apprehensions touching the subject you requested whose principal scope was to proffer you a fuller discourse by word of mouth upon the particulars therein barely hinted But since you being pleased to divulge it in your book without my knowledge or approbation I shall only remark two passages The first is a mistake in printing in the second page and seventeenth line It is printed We are in our journey to Sion visibly separated whereas it ought io be To Sion visibly stated and so it was written in my Letter also Revel 8.34 for Revel 8.5 in the third page The second is as you assert that I quoted Isa 66.5 for Isa 56.5 which error you not finding out said nothing on that place Answ There were some such errors in yours insuing which when the words were written I rectified and replyed accordingly and it is possible that amongst many Scriptures I might faile in the quotation of one yet the words of the text being named your Concordance might soon have directed you to finde out the place ar else within the compass of eight or nine moneths for so long space it was ere your returned me answer you might have inquired of me we living so neer one to another You neither have nor I suppose ever can in your
sense give a solid interpretation of that Scripture There be some other places rightly pointed out which you pass over with utter silence though very material to this case namely those produced to prove a new pouring out of the Spirit when the marriage again comes as Isa 32.15 Ezek. 37.9 Mat. 24.27 28. Psal 97.4 answerable to that in the primitive Acts 2. Ezek. 1.4 1 Timoth. 4.14 We cannot omit another passage Your book is not dated in the beginning according to the usual manner but at the end of your Epistle and there bears date August 18. whereas it came not out till December neer four moneths after Whether this be double dealing to make the Reader believe that we are tardè in our reply is best known to your own conscience Thus far in answer to your Epistle A Glass of some new DISCOVERIES SIR THe discoveries and new breakings forth of light after great and epidemical Apostacies have always met with strong oppositions and sharp encounters and though Truth at first be still blamed with the names of Novelty Errour and what not yet as unashamed it hath been bold as a lion to face against all discouragements and at conclusion carried with it the triumphant palm of Victory This is that Jewel we are now contending for the original of which contest was a Letter sent me by you to request me to impart those points I had newly taken up and what my opinion was about your Presbyterian way To satisfie your desire I returned you a brief account of what you required in writing and to avoid the long tediousness of the Pen invited you to a more full and ample discourse on the subject now in debate by word of mouth Your Manuscript coming since declares that your leasure would not permit a Verbal dispute which I conceive had been far easier then to answer so largely in writing You tell me withal that you received my Letter as a testimony of my good opinion of and good will towards you but upon deliberate perusal profess that my Principles appear not so solid as you can close with them Had it not been for the cause above expressed I should have been more full methodical and clear in committing my Pen to Paper but what I sent I assure you came from the right hand of true affection and it may be that ancient and long fixed Principles may reject as unsound the Orthodoxal Truth of Jesus Christ He that hath drunk old wine doth not straightway desire new but thinks the old is better However the solidness of those tenents will appear when they come for trial to the Touch-stone of the Word of God I desire that in combating for the Truth we may keep the Royal law of love and shall endeavour as to be free from bitterness and passion so to avoid the other extreme of Partiality and soothing and in a medium betwixt these two Rocks faithfully dispense that talent the Master hath given me The main Queries controverted betwixt us are these two First 1 Querie Whether a true constituted Church with true Office and visible Membership together with the Ordinances proper to such a Gospel-stating as Confirmation or laying of hands on Members Ordination or laying hands on Officers Suspension Excommunication Admission Absolution retaining of sins c. continued true by a line of succession from the Primitive time downward to our times or whether it were not interrupted by the Romish Apostacie Secondly 2 Quaerie If they did there intermit when they return again to their first glory whether now or hereafter and what is the dispensation now approved by the Spirit It will be requisite to clear up these two together as a preparative and ground work to our ensuing Discourse We will begin with the First Cessation and evidence the Cessation of visible Church-constitution in mystical Babylon We shall lay down this for a sure Maxime That every thing hath its being and continuance from the Word of God Now whatever in Gospel-times if fore-declared and promised in the Scripture for abiding that did not fail but was upheld by the power of the Word through all the times of this Apostacie as the Ordinances of Ministery Prayer and Praises Baptism the Communion 1 Thess 5.16 17 18. Rev. 9.13 Chap. 11.1 Heb. 13.15 Isa 55.13 Chap. 56.5 Matth. 28.19 20. 1 Cor. 11.26 as also a sealed elect number with their spiritual union Rev. 7.4 5 6 7 8. Chap. 9.4 Chap 11.1 Chap. 14.1 likewise the being and profession of faith duties of charity with all moral precepts 1 Cor. 13.13 Matth. 16.18 Rev. 11.3 Matth. 5.17 18. Heb. 13.1 with whatever else is promised to continue But what is not so perpetuated in the Word as Confirmation Ordination Church-Censures with the primitive order or Church-stating was corrupted and turned into confusion by the great Antichrist it wanting the same Word and Promise to uphold its abiding For proof whereof we will begin with Isai 56.5 which was a prophecie beginning with the primitive Gospel-Church and the ingrafting of the Gentiles thereinto as appears vers 1. by the salvation coming and the righteousness the Gospel-Ministery then revealed also the stranger then joyning himself to God and the Eunuch the dry tree before then taking hold of the Covenant vers 3 4. must allude to the Gentiles who in times past were dead without Christ and hope aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise Eph. 2.1 12. and were then ingrafted into the true Olive-tree Rom. 11.17 19. the sons and daughters must be the jewish Church who before was a married wife and her members children Gal. 4.27 Isa 54.1 Matth. 15.22 24 26. again vers 8. the gathering of others besides those who were before gathered shews them to be the primitive Gentile-Christians compared with Joh. 10.16 To this Eunuch these Gentiles are fore-prophesied that they shall have a place and a name better then the sons and daughters the Jews the event declares that they had both in the primitive according to this prediction but afterwards when the Spirit annexeth a perpetual succession it singles out the name by it self leaving the place behinde I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off The word interpreted place is in the Hebrew sad which signifies a hand as alluding to Church-power Now why should not the place be said to be everlasting as well as the name especially being before both joyned together if the Spirit had not seen the fail and interruption of the chain thereof This also fell out answerably for the name Christian or Israel remained but the visible Church-order became Babylon both which shall be proved in their place From thence turn to Matth. 16.18 where you may observe that to the profession of Peter's saith and Christ the Rock believed is forespoken that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it but vers 19. the keys of binding and loosing opening and shutting are set after
6.4 9. compared with John 12.40 Acts 2.2 by which the visible keys of Church-power were given and sanctified but after when the Angel fell Rev. 9.1 2 3. another earthen hellish key with other smoke arising from the pit darkning and banishing the lightsome glory of the former as above and at last a new smoaking of the Temple from Gods glory Rev. 15.8 a new opening and entering implying key and doors all shewing that there was no opening nor entering but a cessation and shutting of the true visible betwixt these two days Besides there is a new open breathing of the four windes of the Spirit Ezek. 37.9 after the long restraint of the primitive blast Rev. 7.1 Act. 2.2 Ezek. 1.4 a new pouring of his Spirit Isai 32.15 after the former hiding of his power a new Marriage and Marriage-call Rev. 19.7 9. besides the Marriage at the first Matth. 22. a new lightning Matth. 24.27 besides the lightning at the primitive Ezck. 1.4 13 14. all teaching a non-continuance of this glory Again there was an invisible day between the bright shining day at the first Luk. 17.22 and the like glorious day again at the last vers 24. an invisible kingdom as that within vers 21. passing between the open kingdom of the primitive and the manifest kingdom of God at the last Chap. 21.31 Rev. 19.6 Chap. 11.17 all clearing up this cessation The visibilities Lo here and there were false and delusive The event hath made all this as perspicuous as the sun shines in the open firmament to those who will not obstinately and of set purpose shut their eyes against it to wit That there was an apparent and general Apostacie darkning and swallowing up all the bright Order of the primitive For that Church after Constantine had sully subdued the heathen Emperors and setled all in outward tranquillity about the yeer of our Lord 327 as the margin on Socrates hath it lib. 1. cap. 3. beginning to conform to and mix her self with National and worldly things degenerated and daily declined by the four first trumpets Rev. 8. till at last by the fifth the star totally apostated from heaven to earth about 390 and then the key of external Rule became purely National and was onely in the jurisdiction of Popes Patriarchs Bishops and earthly Hierarchies who alone usurped all Church-power into their hands In all our Western Globe there was no Church-Government visible but what was Romish for many ages and our Antagonist M. Elmestone confesseth that their Office of the Ministery the principal pillar of the Church came directly from Rome no longer ago then Luther's time Hereupon that of Protestantism is not termed a Separation but a Reformation their Office and Membership coming radically from the Romish Synagogue which seems to be hinted by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon and she was not healed Object It hath been objected by others What shall we think of the Greek Church who never had to do with Rome nor owned her power Answ To whom we reply 1. That the Church of Grecia may be no plea to such who live in the Levant under the Turk but concerns not in the least our Protestant Churches who derived not their power from the Greek but from the Romish Pontificality 2. It is not true that the Greek Church never had to do with Rome For about the yeer 390 after Christ all the Eastern Bishops yeelded the Primacie of seat the proper place of Christ to the Romane Pope And afterward if the Bishop of Rome obtained by Phocas the Emperour the title of Vniversal then assuredly the Bishop and Patriarch of Grecia must be subject unto him and together with the Church be within the limits of his territories Again the Greek Empire was possessed by the Latines for sixty yeers together even from the yeer 1200 to the yeer 1260 and then Michael Paleologus recovered their Empire who about the yeer 1273 agreed with Pope Gregory the tenth at Iyons in France and promised that both himself and all his people hereafter should yeeld all Sovereignty to the Latine Pope and Church 3. The Greek Church was as well National and had a terrene Hierarchy even the very same with Rome and is so apostated that she denies the holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son prays for the dead believes that the Saints departed enjoy not the presence of God till the Resurrection admits children of seven yeers old to the Sacrament because then as they conceit they begin to sin receives none into Orders but such as are married and forbids marriage to those who are actually in Orders rejects carved Images but admits the painted with many the like Fopperies and in many fandamentals is as gross or grosser then Rome To conclude Chap. 7 all the four windes of all quarters were restrained Chap. 11.2 the whole outward court of Discipline as well East as West was cast out as above and the great City Babylon was not onely at Rome but at Judea where our Lord was slain Chap. 11.8 and then certainly Grecia lying in the midst between must needs be comprehended within the circumference thereof It hath by some as the Dippers been questioned whether these National Churches be within the Covenant To whom I answer that though in their Church-order they were Babylon or confusion yet are they not wholly excluded from the Covenant as Heathens but are termed by the Spirit Israelites who had a sealed number amongst their tribes Rev. 7. Here we may see how though the place or hand failed the name was everlasting And it is not safe to detract from the words of this Prophecie especially seeing the sequele hath cleared that there was some profession of Christianity and a godly people amongst them through every age of this hiding of Gods power You may find this further cleared in the following Paragraph The next thing considerable under this first Querie is touching the true Church in this confusion 1. What she was 2. What was her condition 3. How she was fed 4. The just time of this her captivity 1. What she was In Chap. 7 I finde that there were one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones preserved secured and provided for In Chap. 9 that this number onely was undestroyed by the Locusts In Chap. 11 that the Temple measured must be this sealed company built up a spiritual house by the mystical bond of the Spirit it having no dimensions specified and all the externality being excluded as shall be proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 4. In Chap. 14.1 that the mount Sion there expressed must be onely the mount of true grace footed on the counsel of God which is called a sure and sealed foundation 2 Tim. 2.19 For 1. All the sealed elect people even the whole one hundred and fourty four thousand stand on this mountain and that through all the apostated season which they did not do in any true visible being mixed amongst the Nations
2. Onely they and none else had their stand thereon all the rest of the common Israelites were hurt by the withholding of the windes Chap. 7. by the Locust Chap. 9.3 and were utterly supplanted by the Beast Chap 13.8 Matth. 24.24 Hence I deduced this consequence that the Elect alone must make up this Temple Sion and that all other Christians that had but the externality bring in a false visibility had not so much as outward measurement but were wholly the patrimony of the Beast and Whore 2. What was her condition here In Chap. 7 that she was some of every tribe distinguished from the rest onely by the seal of true election 2 Cor. 1.20 21 22. In Chap. 11.2 that all her outward court was taken from her and it being excommunicated became another even the possession of the Nations In Chap. 12.6 14 that she who vers 1. in the primitive day was in heaven there clothed with the sun had the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars all seen in open type as being enriched beautified and completed with full power in her outward visibility afterward by this apostacie fled into the wilderness beneath her former visible orbs where all about her was dry barren and confused earth the Kingdom of God was during this time within Luke 17.21 Her place vers 6 14. must be the abovesaid Temple void of the externality of Order Also the call for separation inters as much as Cant. 6.13 Return return O Shulamite also Isai 35.10 The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion the word ransomed imports their being captive before and their return their absence from that Sion they come unto also Chap. 51.14 The captive exile hasteth to be delivered from the pit which implies their former being in again Rev. 18.4 come out of her my people intimates that they were a company in Babylon before the time of this departure even in that city which is called Sodom and Egypt Chap. 11.8 by which the Spirit would teach us that as Lot was in outward Sodom Israel in Egypt Judah in Babylon so the Lords people should be in such a visible constitution as spiritually was Sodom for beastly idolatry Egypt for bondage Babylon as being in a strange land from the native Canaan of a Gospel-Order where they were strangers under other lords And in which Country there was another earth sea rivers and fountains sun throne rive viz. Euplwates and air Chap. 16. They cannot properly be called out to reward her in these but they must be before within In Chap. 11.3 4 The Witnesses even those who were the chiefest administers of light to the Temple had their outward clothing not with the sun as before but with sackcloth their external investment into Membership and Office being Antichristian and their stand before the earthly god of humane Hierarchies even in the above-said wilderness or great city vers 8. where the Beast those strange earthly lords have power to do and trample them under foot with tyranny vers 2. Chap. 13.5 making their estate mournful And in this dark night of their desertion they were as those asleep as not altogether sensible of their outward state till God by his call awaken them out of this drowzie Coma Cant. 5.2 Matth. 25.5 6. By these Scriptures me may gather that this mystical Church or sealed number was stript of all the glory of his visible inheritance in Church-order and outwardly in a false Babylonish station as in a foraigne country under strange Lords where she was in a mixed estate partly hurt defiled and through blindness deluded partly untouched undefiled undeceived they were indamaged dimmed and seduced in the externality but in the radix of the internal grace could not be subverted it being sustatined by the immediate hand of heaven 3. The next remarkable thing is How the Church was fed in this desolation In Chap. 7.1 2. we may deduce that there was some secret vertue of the Covenant to secure and perpetuate the sealed company In Chap. 11.1 that as there were worshippers in the temple and an altar so their worship must flow immediately from those internal closets that were measured and not at all from the outward court of order which was excluded in vers 3. that Christ himself gave power to the witnesses by an immediate gift when there was none outward of office from man and by that they fed the woman in her place Chap. 12.14 In Zech. 4.12 that though there were not seven pipes a fulness of ordinances as was in the primitive day vers 2. yet there were two remaining to empty out their golden oile as before that these must be such ordinances as are promised in the word to continue which is declared in this cessation above Hence we may draw two observations First For the resolving of a grand paradox propounded by the Episcopalists and Presbyterians against the separation viz. How there can be conversion in a false Church Here we may take notice that there was a temple within a woman Sion and a feeding by the witnesses where all the order was Babylonish Secondly that this more intrinsecal dispensation is weak and sparing and the Saints under it in a low and almost famished condition Amos 8.11 12. Their strength and perfection is then when this more internal work dilates and spreads its vertue to the superficies therefore the way and journey of separation is not a retiring in but an outgoing both of Christ and his people Isa 52.12 Revel 14.4 Mat. 25.6 and is compared by the Lord Jesus to a spring Mal. 24.32 33. as diffusing its vital sap more outwardly and blossoming that magnificent kingdome of the marriage is likened to a summer Luk. 21.29 30 31. The not observing this nor marking what ordinances were left of God to be meerly formal and what remained with some degree of power hath occasioned many to run into another extream and draw the work of the Spirit so within its self as might stop all the expirations or out-breakings thereof and under the notion of highness bring men into a lower condition then that of the Antichristian stand that was a narrow and sparing breathing their 's a stifling and suffocating of the Spirit as obstructing all its passages by which it should reflow in its workings out 4. The last consideration is the time of this great desertion and loss when it began how long it abides and the computation thereof This time cannot begin with the first trumper as Master Brightman and others carry it but must receive its initiation with the fifth deciphered in Chap. 9. For 1. It cannot be with any clearness of sense begin till the woman had taken her full flight into the wilderness chap. 12.6 In the former trumpets two parts in three of the visibility remained true and the star in fifth was in heaven till he fell to the earth and by that apostacie all the externality of church-policy became
an earthy bottomless and Babylonish wilderness Now the woman could not be in the wilderness while her officers were in heaven but they must both fall together 2. This mournful season emphatically stiled by our Saviour the time of tribulation Mark 13.24 must initiate with the first of those three grand woes sounded by the Angel flying in the midst of heaven and that began with the fifth trumpt Chap. 8.13 The former four were gradual preparations the fifth the full accomplishment of that great defection The begining of this time The same as I conceive took its exordium about the yeer 390 after Christ at the time the Bishop of Rome by the general consent of the Asian Affrican and Europian Bishops obtained the priority and Bishoprick of the first seat which is the sole interest and proper centre of Jesus Christ And where this universal primacy was granted to a bare creature Christ would not give his glory to another but wholly departed and left it empty whereby it became meerly humane and bestial The Duration thereof The duration of this time is declared in the Revelations to be 1260 dayes or fourty two moneths which taken according to the Egyptian and Jewish account thirty dayes to a moneth make up exactly the former number of dayes the like doth time times and an half Chap. 15.3 the beast had power given him to make war or prevaile for so is the original forty two months also Chap. 11.2 the nations so long trod the holy City under foot likewise vers 3. the witnesses prophesied clothed in sackcloth the same space of time Chap. 12.6 all this time the woman was in the wilderness which in vers 14. is described to be time times and half a time answerable to the former account which raken prophetically a day for a yeer as this book is delivered in the highest majesty of a prophecie constitute 1260 yeers The computation 0390 1260 nbsp 1650. Now to reckon up the period of this season if we add to 1260 the foregoing time of 390 we may finde the expiration thereof to be about 1650. Many arguments may be produced to prove these dayes to be prophetically a day for a yeer but it hath been done by others and most that are judicious by pondering the hight and order of this prophecie with the event successively answering will proprio nisu of their own voluntary consent agree with me and them in this particular What remarkable turnings and alterations of affaires there were about 1650 in all our dominions even in these ends of the earth with the subsequent success is shewed in Parag. 4. 2. The second material passage to be expostulated is what is the dispensation now approved of God in this next revolution after the former season of adversity Quaere 2. whether by new erecting of visible Churches or by separation without stating waiting till the Lord begin it or thus whether the time for the return of visible marriage be now or hereafter For the resolving of this Gorgian knot See Parag 4. we may propose to our selves a twofold rule First Whether there be a call to foot any Church-constitution in our time or in a time to come Secondly what is the next immediate cause to give vital being to the same 1. For the first we observed by searching the Scriptures that every thing belonging to Church-order either at its first rise or after a general long and total loss was grounded on the written word of God and manifested by the spirit of Prophecie Surely the Lord will do nothing in this but he reveales his secrets to his servants the Prophets Amos 3.7 that the book of the Revelations compiling in a certaine method the several changes and administrations time after time must as well inform us when this manifest kingdom reverts as it doth teach us when and how the primitive was dissolved and became Babylon and upon strict inquiry we could not espie the least hint either by type or vocal expression for any approved visible Church-marriage in the age we live in but that the Revelations together with the old Prophets agree with one accord that the time for this noble work is to be fulfilled in an after-age The signes to know this magnificent fabrick to be to come are these 1. The destruction of the Antichristian enemies and removing obstacles out of the way as Hos 2.18 The Lord will make a covenant for them with the creatures and will breake the low sword and battel ouâ— of the earth and make them to lie down in safety and then verse 19 20 I will marry thee to me for ever also Mat. 13.30 43 the tares are first cut down before the wheat is gathered into the barn so Revel 11.18 19. Chap. 15.8 there is no visible temple in heaven opened till the were destroyed who destroyed the earth even till the destruction of the great City mentioned Chap. 16.19 and Chap. 18. likewise Chap. 19.7 8 9. there is no marriage specified till the Hallelujahs be sung for the finall ruine of Babylon and the glorious reign of God Almighty and then Zech. 14.9 when the Lord only is king in all the earth the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife prepared for her husband then she hath a new grant of his beautiful wedding-garments whereby she shall be outwardly Isa 611 10 covered with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroome decketh himself with his ornaments and a bride adorns her self with her jewels then is there a new call to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Thus we may note that this illustrious prophecy given by Christ to shew to his servants future events leads us as by a hand-dyal to the time when the primitive was cast out and to the very season when it returns in its own supernatural lustre 2. The next signe is the call of the Jews and those Eastern parts as Psal 50.1 The Lord hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof and then God will shine out of Sion the perfection of beauty vers 2. So Matth. 24.27 28 when there is a true manifest gathering to the dead carcase Christ noting a stating work then he will manifest his shining dispensation from east to west like lightning and thus Rom. 11.12 15 speaking of the Jews concludes What shall their receiving be but life from the dead 3. The last signe is the visible effusion of the Spirit which being more properly a cause then a signe I shall refer the proof thereof to the Rule next ensuing The final subversion of-Antichrist the call of the Jews and the eastern parts and the open pouring of the Spirit are all as yet unaccomplished 2. The next rule of Trial is what gives life and present existence to a visible Gospel-constitution and the keys thereof Under this notion we examined the common received Maxime of all the lesser independent bodies which is this That in times of Apostacie as this of
Antichristianism is the keys of visible Church-constitution or Marriage-Ordinances resolve themselves radically into believers or into the power of the people who may at any time take them up erect and model visible Churches open and shut the doors thereof to others This we reduced to the touchstone of the primitive and found that they prayed preached baptized and at last brake bread while they were bare disciples and onely Covenant-members but in respect of Church constitution they were commanded to tarry and wait at Jerusalem till the promise of the Father to wit the keys of the Kingdom was given whereby the Kingdom of God came with power Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 This was a manifest transfusion of the Spirit that did not onely increase the glory of the former but also stated and invested them with new Membership and Office and inspired the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures with a new created efficacie whereby they received in and shut out of that new-married Church The image of this is set forth in Acts 2. It is called a pouring out of the Spirit in regard of the abundant measure thereof visibly manifested vers 17 also a mighty rushing winde filling the house with cloven tongues of fire vers 2 3 as causing that breath of life and spiritual heat which operated in that apparent Kingdom Isaiah compares it to smoke filling the house as presenting the glory of Christ in his powerful administration Chap. 6.3 4. In Ezek. 1.4 5 the four Beasts or livings with each of them four faces which must typifie the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who had all gists and tongues by which they were distinguished from the four Beasts Rev. 4.6 7 who had each of them but one face came out of the midst of that winde cloud and fire also in Ephes 4.8 11 the Spirit tells us that all the several degrees of the Ministerial Office to wit together with the former three Pastors and Teachers were ingendered originally by that virtual efflux of the Spirit sent down from heaven Indeed the twelve were set apart for their Office by Christ while he was on earth and in that sense named Apostles as Joseph is called the husband of Mary and she his wife while they were no more then espoused Matth. 1.18 19 20. and a man may be termed an heir when he is onely designed for the inheritance but their real investment was not till after For Ezekiel in the place before quoted shews that the four-faced beasts proceeded out of the wind cloud and fire expressed Acts 2 and in Eph. 4 Christ first ascended then gave gifts the gift sent down was the Office Some Apostles c. They had not till then that differential eminency of gift which gave being to and distinguished their Office from the rest nor of extraordinary Prophets or Evangelists nor of ordinary Pastors and Teachers no nor yet of the same which private members had after the Spirit was emitted They were before unfurnished with the gift of Tongues Act. 2.2 looked on Christ as an earthly king over a temporal kingdom Luke 19.11 Matth. 20.21 were ignorant of the death resurrection and ascension of Christ the common and main principles of Christianity Matth. 16.22 Mark 16.11 13. Luke 24.11 21 25. were not able to bear many things which after were easie to every believer Job 16.12 Chap. 14.26 1 Cor. 15.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. And this M. Robinson and others the solidest men of the Separation have maintained against the Presbyters and Bishops Again their first designation came not from man but onely from their Master which makes least for those who here will plead against us Besides the disciples were not called a Church nor did any lay on hands for Membership or Office nor use any Church-censures till they received power from on high Hence we may safely conclude that Gospel-stating at the first beginning came not from believers as believers but from the powerful dispensation of Chirst Jesus and that when if sunk and the same open windes before animating were with-held it must return to him the fountain whence at first it flowed for every thing resolvs into its principle But leaving the primitive we may search the Scriptures treating of this last marriage to come and we shall find the same pouring of the Spirit that was in that first Gospel-day * Rev. 11.2 Chap. 19.7 Isa 32.13 14 15. the joyous City shall lie desolate untill the Spirit be poured out from on High whereby the Wilderness shall be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field counted for a Forest also Zech. 17.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace c. Which must be on Jews and Gentiles for the mourners here poured on are interpreted by our Saviour to be all the tribes of the earth who by their sins and Iedol-worship have pierced Christ Matth. 24.30 likewise Ezek. 37.9 th-same open windes before bound up Rev. 7.1 shall be then loosed in their manifest blast So Luk. 17.24 and Psal 97.4 there will be the like fiery flashing lightning to illuminate the world which the earth shall see to wit visibly and tremble also Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he will appear in glory and Isai 60.2 His glory shall be seen upon thee both which places shew that his most excellent dispensation shall be visible Hence we may gather that as this by the apostacy resolved into Christ so it must again issue forth from him before it can have its true existence For this glorious effusion of the Spirit in the first beginning of Church-constitution is the foundation of the keys thereto pertaining it gives them their vital being their proper difference and by its manifold work causeth those various operations which proceed from and by them Thus in the primitive marriage they received power from on high whereby the Lord was to them for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty Isa 28.5 by vertue whereof they had the high keys of the Kingdom So in this last the Lord will first marry them to himself to wit pour out his Spirit upon them whereby they shall be as a crown of glory and a royal diademe in his hand Hos 2.19 Isa 63.2 and then vers 5 they as sons of the Church shall marry in others the first is done by God immediately wherein man is meerly passive the second by man as instrumental working by the power of his preceding Into the first work of marriage acted simply by Gods own finger none save the Elect enter and not all the Elect but onely such elect ones who believe and wait for the same promise of pouring the Spirit for such choice singled ones were the hundred and twenty in the primitive though by the second done by the hand of the Church hypocrites did then intrude So in this last matrimony Isa 60.21 Rev. 21.27 none but the virgins who expect and prepare
union of the Spirit which is their breath of life and represents them unto us as the lively appearance of Jesus Christ And this may be called ours it being part of our inheritance when the same Spirit is severed and departed from them they remain as empty rudiments Object But many partake of the Ordinances that have not nor ever shall have union with Christ. Answ Those who do truely partake of the Ordinances must in the participation thereof have union with the Spirit of grace because the same Spirit that is in the Ordinances is in the Saints But to such as have in no kinde the workings of that Spirit the Ordinances are both dead and empty or rather a savour of death not that they are so in themselves but by accident because of their spiritual blindness and unbelief There may be a clear and bright light in the air yet for want of light in the eye a blinde man cannot see nor enjoy the comfort thereof Thus the ministery of Christs Gospel was a light shining in darkness but the darkness comprehended it not Joh. 1.5 the Gospel was not void of light nor the Ordinances being as pipes to the Lamps in the dispensation of their lustre but the men wanted spiritual eyes to behold and embrace its beauty Object But the foundation of Ordinances is the institution of Christ. Answ We deny not the institution of Christ to be the foundation of Ordinances but withal affirm that the next immediate principle is the Spirit of grace proceeding from Jesus Christ which by its union gives them their life and soul There may be an institution before the Ordinance hath its proper existence sometimes the command as made known to us by Scripture-record may be a ratification of that which was in being and practise before as we can instance in both However if the institution be perpetuated in the Word then it continues and the Spirit joyns constantly with it when existing if not then may the Spirit leave it sometimes always sometimes for a certain time determined Object The later are grounded on the Covenant of grace and so are the former if by founded you mean they are effects c. Answ 1. If they be effects they must depend upon their cause as their base and principle Every cause is a principle for Omnis causa est principium 2. We deny not that the later are branches of this Covenant but the former have a more neer relation and connexion therewith then the later for the former were used while Christ was on the earth before the keys of the later were given also the elect in mystical Babylon were Israelites as those within the Covenant Rev. 7.3 4. and having their election sealed up had some breathing and nourishment by the former of these Ordinances but the visible Order in which they stood is by the Spirit termed a wilderness and Babylon and the later Ordinances coming from the false key of that Church were bottomless and bestial In the like manner Israel in Egypt had ministery the Passeover c. before the Legal Marriage was contracted likewise the ten apostated Tribes had Circumcision where the visible stated Church was idolatrous Thus the former being before and without the later have a more immediate compliance with the Covenant and the later with visible orderly Church-constitution joyned thereto the one declares a Covenant member the other together with it a visible Church-constituted member To your sixth Objection from Rev. 7.1 I shall hereafter answer in its proper place in Sect. 2. Now we come to examine and remove your Objections brought against the Cessation which we will divide into five Sections Section 1. Our first was that Ministery Prayer the Sacraments Faith with Profession had the promise of the Word to uphold their successive abiding But the later as Ordination Confirmation Church-censures c. wanted the said promise and so lie void and desolate for a time as is proved in the Cessation I shall return to your two first Objections in the third Section next following Object 3. In the third to prove the later sort to endure successively as well as the former you bring Eph. 4.11 12 13. and 1 Tim. 6.13 14. Answ 1. To that of Eph. 4 we assent that all the Officers there exhibited were gifts sent down from Christ after his ascension to his Father vers 8.11 as also that they were differentially distinguished each from other both in the Office its administration and operation vers 7. and that all these together exceedingly furthered the work of the Ministery and tended wonderfully to the edifying of the body of Christ and the completing of the growth and stature of the Saints But yet we maintain that this dispensation of Office continued not to the end of the world as you would insinuate for it reached no further then the Primitive Apostolical times For proof whereof we shall render these Arguments 1. Because all the Apostles were dead at the end of the first or beginning of the second Century and in little time after Evangelists and Prophets You may from this place as well argue the constant abiding of Apostles Prophets and Evangelists as of Pastors and Teachers seeing the Spirit here speaks of a complete and full dispensation of Official Ministery consisting of all these together to bring this noble work to its perfection 2. The whole primitive key of Office was lost in the Romish defection and returns not again till Babylon is destroyed See the Cessation 3. If Office had lineally descended from the primitive then must Rome's Officers and her officiating be good and true and so she a true visible Church in the deepest of her Apostacie whom the Scripture declares to be Babylon and cast out from true measurement Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17. 4. If your sence be right then apostated Rome must be a continued increasing growing Church higher then it was when Paul wrote this Epistle or the highest degree of the Apostolical Church For the word until notes a continued act and all the tenour of the verses declares an increasing growing state whereas Rome was not a rising but a falling away 2 Thest 23.4 5. Because Christ in the time of this backsliding promiseth a new gift that implies the failing of the former Rev. 11.3 6. The union of faith here specified as the period of this time cannot be applied to the resurrection for then we walk by sense not by faith and enjoy the thing now onely beleft Therefore Sir to give you the true sence of this Text in respect of time we conceive that this word until extends no further then the end of the first or beginning of the second Century For then when the book of the Revelations was given the whole Scriptures were completed and so the work of the Ministery made perfect then was the highest rise fulness and unity of faith then was the scruple of Circumcision in greatest part if not wholly removed the Temple being destroyed
in profession were beyond the sphere of Satan For the inward created principle in the soul breaking forth in and by these means and Ordinances the Spirit in and by the Word sustaining its perpetuity and Christ supporting the same are all far above the reach of Antichrist had these been in the power of that destroyer he would have utterly marred all the springs yea the very fountain of grace In the same manner the communion taken on the ground work of the spiritual union of all the godly wherever scattered when the corporated was false and Christ therein fed upon by faith was not altogether subverted for the mystical relation betwixt Christ and the heart and the godly with the godly was beyond the compass of Popes Bishops or any humane authority whatsoever Also for Baptism though the Antichristian Church was in her constitution and order unmeasured to truth and therein Babylon yet she was not utterly shut out from the Covenant but had the call of Israelites had the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost put on them with a common grace to believe the Covenant and an elect sealed number in and amongst their tribes none of which properties can be attributed to those wholly without Though Antichrist in some things infected the externality of this Ordinance yet could he not fundamentally raze the Covenant nor utterly abolish the name of Christ from amongst Christians nor make invalid the power of the Word perpetuating that name Isai 56.5 In like sort the ten apostated tribes were in their Church-order set up by Jeroboam radically false and yet were Israelites within the Covenant and had the signe of Circumcision Thus also men excommunicated are excluded from Church-fellowship but not from their Baptism and the Covenant Likewise Hereticks who fell from the Church were received again not by new Baptism but by laying on of hands Euseb l. 7 cap. 2 3. 2. Our Reasons why the later sort as Ordination Confirmation c. abode not are these following 1. They are not promised in the Word to continue Isai 56.5 2. They wanting that promise were forsaken by God when corrupted 3. All the external Order became Antichristian and so the Ordinances proper thereto must be bestial or else how could there have been a Babylon wherein the sealed number were captives 4. Our last taken from this text Rev. 9 is that these were wholly resolved into the Pope to whom was given another key with other smoke and Officers These being altogether external and Christ leaving them Antichrist might have and had absolute power therein to make them bottomless Object Against this you assert that though the Pope have another false key yet withal he hath the keys of Christs discipline in Ordination Excommunication Suspension c. Answ Though the Pope usurp the carcase of those Ordinances that were Christs before yet their true essential form which makes them to be Christs and true Office and Membership on which they depend he and his whorish Church have not For confirmation whereof these grounds do naturally arise from the text 1. The first Reason is drawn from the nature of the Pope and Antichristian Hierarchies vers 1. the Star or Angel fell from heaven the orb in which he was fixed before unto the earth or wilderness Chap. 12.6 a total apostacie from his former office and sphere and was not in the least degree heavenly but terrene earthly and meerly humane or a wilde beast Rev. 13.1 and is numbered not to God but to man vers 18. It is a true Rule Corruptio optimi est pessima The corruption of the best things is always worst and most contrary to its former goodness Satan who was the noblest is by his fall the basest of creatures and most unlike to an angel of light which he was before he fell So here that Angelical Office which shined as a fixed Star in the bright firmament of the primitive purity holding forth the liveliest glory of Christ for the perfecting of the Saints being once apostated from his former sphere became not onely an humane Hierarchie but a meer Antichrist as most opposite to Christ of any other 2 Thess 2.3 and the man of sin as that wherein the quintessence of evil and deceit is epitomized and grown to its perfect maturity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one in office altogether without and besides the Law and likest to sin it self which is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.4 nay he is the principal vicegerent of Satan on earth to whom he commits his chiefest power Rev. 13.2 throne and authority in the exercise whereof he is Abaddon or Apollyon Chap. 9.11 destruction it self in the abstract recorded in the two most famous Languages and is most emphatically stiled by Paul The son of perdition being one who hath caused the greatest ruine and desolation and is termed by John the King of the bottomless pit Thus we may see that the Office of the Pope and his Hierarchy is most corrupted of any thing else being that wherein the being of Antichrist doth subsist who is not a particular person but a corporation And this Official Hierarchy being stript naked of its primitive truth and becoming meerly Antichristian cannot in the least degree beget a lawful Office for Nâ—l dat quod non habet If the fountain be polluted how can the streams be pure None can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.3 2. This Angel had another key different in nature from the former And it is impossible the keys of the kingdom of heaven can subsist with the key of the bottomless pit or the power of Jesus Christ be united with the power of Satan Contraries in their extremes cannot stand together but the one must destroy the other 3. The Church opened by this key is a bottomless pit bottomless she being void of the groundwork of Truth in her order a pit or prison being as a hell on earth in which men are captivated Prov. 7.27 Chap. 9.18 Isai 51.14 Chap. 49.9 Zech. 9.11 12. also a Church excommunicated of God and Babylon Rev. 11.2 Chap. 17.5 and so cannot in her constitution have the keys of the kingdom of heaven for the key must be of the same nature with the Church Besides if Confirmation Ordination Excommunication c. be true in Rome then must that Romish Church into which by these keys she enters and out of which she shuts be a kingdom of heaven and a Sion and not a bottomless pit and Babylon which we conceive you will be ashamed to affirm 4. The smoke or dispensation of this pit or false Church is hellish and diabolical eclipsing and darkning the whole Horizon vers 2. and how can the smoke or winde of Gods glory spiriting these Ordinances and making them lightsome dwell together with the darksome false and delusive smoke of the bottomless pit surely the Lord will not so much honour Antichrist his greatest adversary If the
engagement to prophesie ariseth from their taking and eating the book Besides the word Angel signifieth a Messenger or one sent with a prevailing administration which may be either by the medium of a visible power here belowe or else simply from above without any such mediums from man All this we shall be ready to evidence in our next Return Before we pass from hence give us leave a little to go back and reflect upon the ground-work of your stand and dealings in this particular Truly Sir we conceive you are hardly driven when being sounded to the bottom you cannot justifie your own Office but withal you are inforced to plead for that of Friers Monks Priests Bishops and the whole rabble of the Popish Orders nay to maintain them to be the Angels of truth by reason of their outward investments from Rome neither can you vindicate your interest in your key of Church-government in Ordaining Excommunicating c. but you must therewith manage the Popes Surely it is inevitable necessity drives you to this extreme shift that either you must hold the foundation of Church-order to remain in Rome and so make that mother of harlots to be radically the true spouse or else you must yeeld and renounce your own We cannot but * Isai 29.9 stay our selves and wonder that you who have been counted men of knowledge and godliness should so straitly tie up all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ to such a corrupt and Antichristian function as if you onely were thereby called and inrighted with a power to dispense the same when as your Office in the root thereof comes from the Pope the angel of the bottomless pit and his false way If your eyes were opened to see the nature and extent of that key you would quickly finde that your glorying herein were your greatest shame and so it will appear ere long For though you should outwardly clothe this your Office and the Church built thereon with the fairest Robes of the primitive patern and could extract the quintessence of wit policie learning art argument to present it as impregnable and had the tongues of men and angels to paint it out with more then humane eloquence to make it seem like * Ezek. 27.3 Tyrus to be of perfect beauty yet being in its principle earthly and bottomless your Office with the power of its government will unavoidably be disclosed to be a false Christ a false prophet or Beast the Church sustained thereby to be a daughter of that great mother Rev. 17. and her attire and seeming beauty to be no other then the glittering ornaments and paintings of the woman Babylon the mystery of whose deceit will be anatomized and made naked by the light of the Spirit This lay concealed in times of ignorance and God did more connive but now his call enlightens and discovers these principles of delusion and invites to a separation Let us therefore advise you in the bowels of charity to obey this voice of the Spirit in coming off your selves and to hasten your members the captive exuls that they die not in the pit that you may be of the number of the rejoycing harpers Rev. 15. and not of those mourners Chap. 18. Section 4. Our next ground was that the visible Church it self the foundation of these later Ordinances failed and so the Ordinances proper to a constituted Church must needs receive a loss of their efficacie Object You except That the visible Church is not the foundation but the institution of Christ Answ The institution of Christ is a foundation but yet that which affords present being or existence both to the constitution of visible Government it self and the Ordinances arising thence is the Spirit of life sent from Jesus Christ as is elsewhere shewed And whether such a Church first married by God whereby to have the keys of this visible kingdom given them from above and the Spirit of Christ united to and operating in them enjoy not by vertue of that union a principle of power to use the same and contribute a right Membership and Office unto others we leave it to you to consider The iron conjoyned to the fire hath the same essence of heat and operation with the fire and I suppose you will grant that a true Presbytery coferring an Office unto another by Ordination hath the being and foundation of that Office This word foundation taken simpliciter simply and originally is proper onely to Christ but secundum quid after some sort may be attributed to the Church whether visibly corporated or mystical You assent that if it be made good that the visibility of Church-order failed and became Babylon it is enough to carry the cause Answ This is proved in the Cessation from Rev. 11.2 that when this outward court was given to the Nations it was then cast out by the Spirit The words properly translated run thus But the court which is without the temple cast out and measure it not for it is given to the Nations and the holy city shall they tread under foot fourty and two months When the Nations ingrossed the externalitie and outside of Ecclesiastical Government into their hands and joyned in with National worldly Regiment they made up national Churches Here we may behold as in a spiritual Map of what nature they are and how they are false and Antichristian in the original of their constitution whether considered as Papal Episcopal or Presbyterial which these Reasons syllogistically drawn from the native sence of the text do demonstrate 1. Those Churches which are altogether outward and have nothing of the temple and altar and the vertue and life thereof in their constitutions are meerly humane and spiritless But National Churches whether Papal Episcopal or Presbyterial are so Therefore c. The Major you cannot deny the Minor is cleared by the words of the text for no more was given them but the outward court See Sect. 2. 2. Those Church-Constitutions that are cast out of God are disapproved and forsaken of him But such National Church-constitutions are cast out of God Ergo c. The Major is undeniable the Minor is confirmed by this Scripture The court without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies cast out and not leave out as it is translated hereupon ensued another key Sect. 3. 3. Those Churches that have no measurement by the line of Truth are false and Antichristian But such National Churches have no measurement by the line of Truth Ergo c. The minor is evinced by the text Measure it not and so are bottomless 4. Those Churches who are distinct and another from the holy City are in their ground-work of their Order strange and Babylonish But such National Churches are distinct and another from the holy city Ergo c. The Major is indubitable The Minor is also evinced from the text where they the Christian nations and the holy city are set in distinct and opposite terms 5. Those Churches who
other men but rather mistrust my own conceptions in which I go alone unless I can prove that I have Daniels spirit or justifie it by irrefragable arguments Answ My desire is to dive into these types and Prophecies with an humble and self-denying mind and to be free from puffed-up phansies of mine own wisdom above others or beyond the measure God hath given me neither do I acknowledge immediate revelations and inspirations as Daniel and the Prophets had to belong to any in our time but mediate by the word and for mine own particular am very cautious what I receive for truth upon these Prophecies either from myself or others untill by comparing Scripture with Scripture together with the event it be cleared up to me by manifest arguments As for other interpreters some of them I adjudge to be godly learned and wise and highly prize their interpretations wherein I finde them to agree with the natural sense of the text Yet they sticking in national Churches and living in the obscurer times of the tribulation were so veiled that they could not behold the next dispensation of Christ after the 1260 yeers should be expired But now the date of that time being finished God hath and will raise up a separated people who stand at the Glassie sea Revel 15.2 in the more bright unfolding of the mind of the Apostles and Prophets both for matter and time answerable to the promise made to such a returning people Isa 42.16 I will make darkness light before them And for my sense upon them as I have with diligent circumspection examined it my self so I wish others truly to weigh it by the balance of the Sanctuary and they may find that it comes not from me but from Christ his Apostles and Prophets nor to me only but to all those freed redeemed ones whose eyes the Lord hath and will inlighten Your insuing discourse on this subject contains two particulars Object 1. The doctrine of Christs persons offices the meanes to apply him faith the most dangerous errors in faith and worship are better learned out of doctrinal texts of Scripture then out of the Revelations that holding forth a story of the enemies of the Church who they should be how they should oppress the Church and at last be destroyed by her and of the Churches estate before the enemies rising under their power its deliverance and glorious estate in the end and not of faith worship and good works Answ 1. The book of the Apocalypse is doctrinal as well as other Scriptures for all Scripture is profitable for doctrine 2 Tim. 2.61 if all be doctrinal then this book is not excluded 2. The offices of Christ faith worship and good works are here figured out by allegories which being compared with other plainer texts make their sense much more full and bright to such whose eyes are open to discern the mystery 3. This historical narration doth not only shew who the Churches enemies are but what they are and in what they chiefly stand to wit in the court without Chap. 11.2 nor barely describes her persecution by and deliverance from but also presents before us the several dispensations of God the divers outward stands of his people in their distinct periods both that of the primitive that under antichrist this of the separation that of the visible marriage and call returning and the glory of new Jerusalem all which are of great and high concernment for a Christians knowledge and walk Chap. 1.3 and the ignorance whereof may occasion deep misery Revel 18.4 Chap 14.9 c. Besides the subject we are treating upon to wit who the beast is what he is in his latitude what was the dispensation and stand of the Saints in mystical Babylon what it is and ought to be in the season of their separation from her is not expressed by plain text of Scriptures but by dark prophecies and visions by way of prophesie it must be as being to come in the ages when Scripture was penned and the Lord in divine wisdome hath delivered it more obscurely that the common multitude in hearing might not hear and in seeing might not see but as was fore-prophesied might be deceived by the beast and partake with Babylon in her plagues as also that the curious art of the Spirit might the more be magnified in its wrapping up so much choice matter into such brief compendious platforms and at last in its bright explicating those intricate types and sayings to his despised servants which are veiled from the great Rabbies of the time for such with other causes these wayes and judgements of God are parabolically delivered Now we must search them where they are written if we intend to find Object 2. The Revelations is veiled with such mystical visions as very learned Christians cannot uncover the vaile nor clearly see to the end of them An. That this is concealed from such as adhere to national Churches is true it being prophesied that the veile should lie upon nations Isa 25.7 Chap. 30.8 9 10 11. Chap. 42. 19 20. also Chap. 29.10 The Lord hath poured out upon you Prophets the spirit of a deep sleep and vers 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you like to a book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is sealed And the book is delivered to him that is not learned to read and he saith I am not learned Here the Spirit meets you in your argumentations of this nature for those who are most eminent amongst you alleadge that the visions of the Revelations and Prophets are sealed or as you here say veiled and we must not presume to dive into secrets such as are of a lower capacity complaine that they are unable to comprehend those mysteries and tell us that it belongs to scholars and learned men The reason of this darkness is because the Lord hath covered you But behold in vers 18 what the Spirit promiseth to such whom you adjudge to be blind and deafe The deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness And to these people who are inlightned to follow the Lamb this book together with the parables of Christ and the Prophets are as a cloudy pillar to lead them in their journey This worthy prophecie is the last book given by the Father unto the great Prophet after his ascension into glory and sent by his angel unto his servant John and is called a Revelation being delivered to shew to his servants things that were to come and that of Jesus Christ an emphatical title and proper to this book wherein it carries a dignity beyond the other Scriptures in the front whereof is promised an especial Gospel-blessing to such as read hear and keep the words of this prophecie keeping implies both an understanding of and a way or walk for his
19.7 8 9 His wife hath made her self ready hath the grant of the wedding-garment and the call to marriage-supper Blessed is he that shall be called to this nuptial feast for none that are unfurnished uncircumcised or unclean shall enter thereinto Isa 52.1 Zech. 14.21 therefore will the door be shut against the foolish virgins Let us take the counsel of our Lord vers 13 Luke 21.36 Watch and pray that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things viz. the vials wrath and to stand before the Son of man when he comes in the glory of his Spirit The arising taking and trimming of the Lamps both of the wise and foolish virgins is now the discerning of the one from the other about the sixth vial Revel 16.15 the wedding is after the vials pouring on Antichrist As these virgins go from Babylon and the Lord by his call guidance and protection leads before Isa 52.12 so do they follow the Lamb as they have an aspect toward the marriage to Christ coming then in the visible manifestation of the Spirit so do they go forth to meet the bridegroom There be some other difficulties to be unfolded in this text which for brevity I shall here omit till I see my opponents exceptions In the going forth or travelling of these virgins or returners towards the marriage we find two noted and observable passages The first-is from the beast his earth sea rivers and fountains and throne c. The second is over the river Euphrates at the sixth vial Chap. 16. The Saints going over this great river are stiled the kings of the East which is not a proper but figurative and borrowed speech as well as the earth sea c. and are so tearmed partly in allusion to the kings of Judah who went to the temple by the way of the East gate Ezek 36.12 partly for that they will be increasing flourishing kings resembling the Sun-rising by which they are distinguished from the kings of nations who are then declining and upon their fall like to the Sun in the West partly as they will resemble their King Christ who is called the Angel of the East Rev. 7. And these are not only Jews but Gentiles also unless you intend to disrobe them of their kingly dignity and do suppose that the Dragon Beast false Prophets kings of the whole world with their adherents do make war only against the Jews and are not gathered against the godly Gentiles an idle fancy to imagine Besides these are the men that pour out their vial into the aire Thus far in general But because you seem to require it and that it may more fitly answer yours we shall now divide it into particular Reasons why this walk of these harpers is separation without stating Reason 1. Our first ground is because in this season there is no divine call for visible Church-constitution or marriage if there be we should desire to be informed where the highest we can finde in the Scripture is for separation and rewarding There was never any new work begun in Church-matters either not in being before or after a general and long privation without a new call to authorize and impower men for the work Noah built not his ark till God commanded him Gen. 6.14 Abraham departed not from his country till the Lord said unto him Get thee out Chap. 12.1 Aaron assumed not the honor of the Priesthood till called of God Heb. 5.4 nay Christ our Lord honoured not himself but he that said unto him c. vers 5. David durst not build a resting place for his God without asking counsel of the Prophet the Lords oracle and being forbidden prepared abundantly for the work but durst not attempt to build 1 Chron. 17.1 3. Chap. 29. his son Solomon a king of Peace being called begun and finished that magnificent building 1 Chron. 17.12 Chap. 28.6 the same temple being after ruinated by the king of Babylon was not reedified but by a heavenly voice directing Cyrus and the Jews to do it Isa 44.28 Chap. 45.1 4.2 Chron. 36.23 Ezra 1.2 3. the Apostles waited at Jerusalem and went not forth to state visible Churches till they received power from heaven calling and priviledging them for that designe Acts 1.4 Chap. 2.2 And questionless Jesus Christ in his Revelation exactly marking out and shewing to his servants all the remarkable changes and dispensations of his Saints would after so long a cessation and confusion of their first order the greatest for matter and time that ever was have in this book confirmed the work of stating and made it indubitable by his call in its first return as well as that of separation if there had been any such fabrick now to be erected If you object the primitive call The Cessation of that insuing and the other new call to come makes that to be to us insufficient Again there is not any visible administration of the Spirit to begin any Church-constitution since the windes were with held Rev. 7.1 nor will be till the same winds are loosed and the Spirit again poured out in a visible symbol as is proved in the Cessation Quaer 2. Reason 2. Our next ground why we cannot at this time state and but only separate is because the book of the Revelation prescribes two distinct and severed periods for separation and visible Church-marriage the first to be during the rewarding by war Chap. 18.4 6. the last to be after a full separation and the downfal of Babylon Chap. 19.7 9. Now time is Gods peculiar prerogative and proper interest who can appoint him the times without intrenching upon his incommunicable royalty Jer. 51.44 Again as there is a time fixed for every purpose so every thing is beautiful in its time Eccles 3.1 11. but out of his season there is and must be a deformity and disproportion the reason is because many concurrences fall into the point of opportunity that contributes a comliness goodness and sometimes truth of existence to the thing or action which being done out of its season loseth its grace and beauty and in Church matters is vaine false and unlawful Thus in this honourable work of stating there will at that day be the raine of God the bright and powerful administration of the Spirit the grant and gift of the beautiful wedding garment the lively call of Christ to make it incomparably glorious and of surpassing lustre but now in this your day there is not only the want but the contrary to all these which causeth it be both obscure formal narrow as also disuniting dangerous and sinful Now the harpers above specified are virgins not the defiled married women they are obedient followers of the Lamb in the call of separation are not intruders and goers before him in the act of stating Reason 3. The third is because there is not now a sufficient dispensation of light sutable for the majesty of a Gospel-constitution How various are â—iens observations about the
river Euphrates by drying up these waters They are distinguished from the beast in Ecclesiasticks but not from the great river nor from that aire in which as yet they breath Revel 16.12 17. and cannot sit down in a Gospel order till these obstacles and pollutions be removed and they receive the grant of their beautiful wedding-garments the righteousness of the Saints Cap. 19.8 Reason 5. The day of the vials pouring is a time of war and blood-shedding and it is the wise Decree of God first to wash away the filth of the daughter of Sion and to purge the blood of Jerusalem from the midst of her by the Spirit of judgement and burning Isa 4.4 and after that to create upon all her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night vers 5. Where observe that this open dispensation that gives being to Church-stating as you may finde proved in the Cessation Quaere 2. comes not from heaven till after these combustions are put to a period and the Saints purged from filth and blood and then it is done by a new creation Also Revel 15.8 at that marriage-season the temple was filled with smoak from Gods glory and power to wit a manifest pouring out of the Spirit to restore the keys and by them a power given to open the temple for visible entrance Chap. 11.19 but before that day no man could enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled Reason 6. A further reason of the weakness and unwarrantableness of all Church-constitutions in our times may be the divisions and rents amongst the godly caused by these forms also other effects and defects wherein they are directly opposite to the primitive which are more fully recited in the Epistle to the Reader Reason 7. The last reason why it is now by separation without stating is because this return from mystical Babylon is not fully accomplished at once but is traced by distinct steps and degrees Cam. 6.13 Isa 52.11 12. it hath a journey in it and a gradual going onward towards the visible marriage of Sion as Israel of old travelled out of Chaldea and the nations with their faces towards outward Sion Hence the prodigal who types out the Gentiles his return from the strange country Babylon to his native home is intimated to be a long journey his father meeting him afar off in which spiritual passage he was imbraced kissed jewelled c. before he entred into the house Also from the first call for the going out of and rewarding Babylon Rev. 8.4 6. to the marriage and call thereto chap. 19 7 8 9. there is a tract of time interceding as before For as Rome was not built at once but gradatim by several trumpets chap. 8 and 9. so she goes not down together but by degrees and certain intervals by the vials Hereupon chap. 11.18 19. Enemies must first be destroyed by several distances before the Temple in Heaven was opened To this agrees that of Matthew 13. where during the harvest which notes out this last holy war and the time of separation as we can clearâ— if desired the Antichristian Enemies the tares must first be cust down and burned before the wheat is gathered into the barn the visible Church which must imply some space of time Revel 16. This journey of separation is described in the Prophets and in Isa 35.8 9 10. is called a way in the wilderness that as the Saints had their place and abode in the wilderness during the foregoing season for 1260 years Rev. 12.6 14. so now the Lord prepares a way for her to go out by returning and the same is stiled a high-way being paved and cast up by the Spirit above the Babylonish earthly station as that on high or above to the wise it is also by a redoubled speech termed an high-way and a way as being a way in it self which must have a space to be traced in and is for form a way of holiness as that more pure then the times before And that this belongs to a distinguished people is evident ver 10. where they are entitled ransomed separated ones and returners to Sion not staters in Sion and travellers and walkers in the way not sitters down in Church-constitutions Also for time it must pertain to this last departing because the text attributes everlasting joy to be on their heads which can be applyed to not former separation either to that out of Egypt Chaldea or the primitive all these being after darkened by a succeeding sorrowful night onely this last shall have everlasting joy it being the passage to that glorious Kingdome which shall never be eclipsed as were the former Dan. 2.44 chap. 7.18 27. Besides waters and streams are said to break out in this desart ver 6 7 which was not literally fulfilled in the Jewes departure from outward Chaldea Likewise the leaping of the lame or him that halteth and the singing of the dumb ver 6. fitly alludes to the Harpers the incouraging of the fearful to be strong and Gods coming with vengence and a recompence to save ver 4 fitly answers to the recompensing and rewarding by the Vials If you except against this we desire to know what the way is when it is and who are the walkers in it This Prophet further calls this way in the wilderness a new thing then springing forth in which the Lord the light of the world will lead his blind people chap. 43.19 chap. 42.16 Likewise the Spirit by Hosea confirms the same chap. 2.14 15 16 17 18. Behold saith the Lord I will allure her in drawing her out I will cause her to walk in the wilderness for so is the true original and not I will bring her as is translated before she sate in now she walks out of the wilderness I will give her her vines from thence where vines are metonymically taken for the fruits of the vines which metaphorically symbols the comfort of the Spirit or that love which is better then wine Here are also many other pretious promises to the walkers in this way the last whereof is a quiet sitting down and a cessation from war all which shews a space of time to walk in this way and then agreeable to Rev. 1.97 I will marry thee to mee for ever Also the River Euphrates mentioned in the fourth Reason whose waters will be dried up to prepare for a passage over by the sixth Vial chap. 16. relates to this journey We being as yet on this side that river and not off from the Euphratean world and its affairs nor come into the spirituall land of promised must be till then within the wilderness of Babylon and can erect no visible temple but it must be built with Babylons stones stand in her territories and so be Babylons temple This will be dangerous because the Vials wherein the seven last plagues of God are wrapped up will irresistably pour out their wrath upon it either
by war and the punishments thereof or at least by a sharpe and searching discovery I shall therefore advise you with all my Christian friends wheresoever to come off from such like defilements lest ye partake with Babylon in her plagues and that your works burn not at the appearance of Jesus Christ and this you will finde to be seasonable Counsel if the Lord open your eyes to embrace it Section 1. Against this our assertion you except first more generally then particularly your general exceptions I shall bind within this Section the particular I shall divide into several Sections apart Object 1. More generally you assert 1. That this course of ours is contrary to all former times whose separations were accompanied with the present setting up of Church-societies Answ 1. This of separation from spiritual Babel is called a new thing then springing forth Isa 43.19 chap. 42.16 and so must in some respect be differing from all the former Againe we grant the separations of former times were presently accompanied with congregating ministery prayer with other services that were lawfully exercised before their departure as we do the like now but withall denie that those servants of God assumed any new thing or an old after its dispensation lay void without a new call and warrant for the work Object To prove yours You instance the departure of Abraham from Chaldaea Israels from Egypt Judahs from Babylon the Primitives from Judaisme and Hâ—athenisme Answ We shall begin with that of Abrahams who as he separated not till God called him from his Country and his Fathers house Gen. 12.1 Act. 7.2 3 4. so in this his journey he made no innovation but onely exercised himself in Ministery Prayer and the like which he emitted not in Chaldaea and after he came into Canaan took not up the signe of Circumcision till he received an express command from Heaven Gen. 17.10 11 12. and this was not till 24 yeers after his first entrance into the Land of promise as appears by comparing ver 1. with chap. 12.3 and near 30 yeers from his going out from Vr of the Chaldees as may be gathered by Scripture-consent To that of Israels stating in the wilderness upon their going forth from Egypt we say 1. That they were separated from Egypt both people and land being passed through the red Sea but we are not yet so from Babylon nor can be till the way be traced over Euphrates 2. They being thus severed remaâ—ned a bare separated people a yeer or more as you confess 3. After that their marriage or Church-state was not contracted by themselves for the Lord himself begun it at mount Smai where they had a call pattern and warrant for all they did all which was smoked by the cloud of Gods glory but you can produce no such call nor glory for any of your new-built constitutions nor prove the continuance of the primitive through the season of the apostacy Touching the Jewes returne from Babylon we answer That they did not rebuild the Temple in their voyage of separation but first came to Sion the proper resting place and then begun it by vertue of an heavenly call directing Cyrus and the Jewes for that designe and by the incouragement of the Prophets Haggai and Zachariah Isa 44.28 chap. 45.4 Ezra 5.12 Object Here you produce against us the saying of the Jewes Hag. 1 2. It is not time to build Answ They being come to Sion and called of God to the work might justly be reproved for slacking their hands Notwithstanding if they should have erected that divine edifice in their journey before arrived there they might have met with a sharper rebuke and punishment The crime is more hainous to usurpe a power and build upon their own bottoms then to neglect it in its time though I justifie neither However God calls not his people to any such work now in these our travels from mysticall Babell neither can man do it in its owne season this spiritual fabrick being not built by hands as the outward was but the Lord himself must first create it by the pouring out of his Spirit Your temerity in constituting your Church by your owne power before God begins it and charging us as being too too slow for waiting his proper time brings to our mind a story in Exodus chap. 32. When Moses there seemed to the Israelites to tarry too long they as impatient of delay must needs go before God and frame a golden Calfe by their own imaginations as you now do a bestiall Idol To that of the primitive we reply that the Disciples used ministery prayer baptisme and at last received the communion but did not state any visible Churches and after Christs resurrection from the dead they tarried at Jerusalem expecting the promise of the Father to impower them for the same work Indeed when they were first married by God by the glorious emission of the Spirit they by vertue thereof as sons of the Church married in others by bringing them into that Gospel-fellowship So that when visible Churches are existing men are received in as married members when not there can be no entrance further then into a Covenant membership waiting the times of God Object 2. Your next charge against us is that ours is against a common rule for interpreting Scriptures which is that wherein it commands the avoiding of evil it doth vertually command the contrary good Answ This rule we infringe not but imbrace and follow For as we flee from the beast his image marke name and number so we walk in that good way of assembling and exercise such ordinances as are now spirited by the Lord. But you are so far from doing good upon the avoiding evil that you run from one evil of the Bishops and rush into another of Presbytery from Babylon and the beast into Babylon and the same beast newly translated Object 3. You further taxe us that this course of ours casteth a foul blot of gross ignorance and rash presumption upon all the Protestant Churches Answ 1. Your selves separating from the Nations and setting up a Church distinguished from the rest of your parish do in your practice condemn all national Churches You also in your principles and words unchurch all the lesser independent bodies the like do they to you and all others not of their way Therefore for you to lay so high a charge against us and do the same things seemes to favour of partiality and come under the reproof of the Apostle Rom. 2.1 2. For clearing our selves we answer Vivimus legibus non exemplis We set not the practices of men but the lawes of God for our examplar That of man hath especially from the first beginning and so downward of the Antichristian darkness been the common misleading mark of Christians both in Papacy Episcopacy and the like And the differing and disagreeing formes of Churches in our age may teach how invalid humane authority is in the things of God But
at Jerusalem was a true stated Church of God and kept up in purity by some but yours was never rightly constituted and so the high places abroad in the country could not fundamentally corrupt the same The sin of Polygamy was then accounted no sin because no law no sin imputed and though partly connived at of old yet being more inconsistent with a Gospel walk was together with divorcement prohibited by our Saviour Luk. 19.3 4 5 6. Matth. 5.31 32. The sinful infirmities of the regenerate if visible were admonishable and if obstinately stood in excommunicable The primitive Church was very pure in her constitution and was not to suffer leaven lest it should leaven the whole lump 1 Cor. 5.6 7. And it being the Lords wisdome in this last return to bring his people first off by a full separation before he grant their visible wedding-garments who can controule or argue against him Object 1 The Angels are clothed with white pure linen Rev. 16.6 Answ The Angels are of the separated people who are clothed with the like white robes Chap. 7.9 These are said to be white 1. As they are garments of rejoycing and praise for their victory Chap. 15.2 3. which in Scripture-language are called white Eccles 9.8 Isa 61.3 also the Spirit by Zechariah presenting the state of the four Monarchs sets forth the Persian who brought joy and deliverance to the Jews in the form of a white horse Chap. 6.3 6. 2. In purity as by way of comparison they are brighter then before being off from the beast in Ecclesiasticks likewise in their Ministery aimes and desires they are clear from Euphratean filth and in that way of separation which leads them over the river Euphrates Albeit for the present being on this side that river they cannot in their practice be altogether free from some worldly uncleanness the Spirit as yet evincing the highest righteousness therein attainable as is declared in our said reason And for that the Ministery and minde is thus off from self and their way ascending to a higher purity the Spirit figures out the separation and the Angels in the first general embleme with the same whiteness and cleanness of array which will be attained to in the upshot of the journey Christ in this Revelation doth frequently pourtray things that go on gradually to such a hight first in a brief common type in the beginning as they are in their extent and after sets down in particular the several steps by which they work up to the same utmost degree as we shall evidence in our next Answer by undeniable instances if excepted against Howbeit these garments in their perfection are but the garments of Virginity Chap. 14.4 the visible wedding-aray is not granted till the marriage comes Chap. 19.7 8. In the mean time virgins have a space for preparing and trimming their Lamps before they be ready Matth. 25.7 Section 6. In the last place which is answerable to our second Reason we informed you that the visible marriage of the Lamb in point of Church-order will not come till all enemies as Antichristian be subdued and God onely reigns Revel 19.2 3 6 7 9. Your first Objection against this is that of Hag. 1.2 The third is the example of the Protestant Churches to both which we have given Reply in this Paragraph Sect. 1. We shall here add that to do any thing in Church-matters without a call or divine warrant is in Scripture-language a sin of the highest nature it being rebellion and presumption is idolatry and like the sin of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 it was the sin of Corah Dathan and Abiram as also of Nadab and Abthu together with Vzza Much more is it hainous to erect Gospel-tabernacles and Churches without a call and spiriting from heaven This we conceive to be the fundamental cause and reason why the Spirit gives to that of Antichristianism terms of such detestation and terror It bears the image of Luciferian pride and boasting 2 Thes 2.4 Jam. 4.16 Rev. 18.7 John 5.43 44. Hence it is chiefly that the Beast is full of the names of blasphemy as if in all his ways he acted in that sea Rev. 17.3 principally for this the woman is said to be the abomination of the earth vers 5. and to be the habitation of devils Chap. 18.2 hence are so great * Isa 24. Rev. 18. Chap. 14.9 10. wrath and judgements against those that partake thereof I say the radical ground of all this is because they do it in their own names without a call and impowering from above And thus it will in short time be discovered as light increaseth And would you have us to rush into such manner of sins against our own light to the hazarding of our own souls and others through your corrupting that place of Haggai Cease Master Elmstone from such preposterous courses and destructive ways As for that of Protestant Churches we desire you in your next book to shew us out of the prophecies their call for their several stated Churches and their several forms both for matter and time or otherwise to leave off such impertinent arguments and remember what you asserted against Rome and the Bishops Object 2. This is to make Christ to be a Bridegroom without a known Bride a King without a Kingdom a Head without a Body for more then a thousand yeers and so as you elsewhere say must bring a notable alteration in Christ Answ Christ is the same in himself yesterday to day and for ever yet in his administration to his Church is various sometimes he is more secret and hidden and in some respect absent and gone sometimes seen with an open prospect of his glorious dispensation all which though it cause an alterable condition in the Church yet makes it no absolute change in the Lord Jesus It is your own carnal apprehension that phancies such a Soloecisme in Divinity 2. To reply to the relation the union betwixt Christ and his Church may be termed a marriage This union is more mystical and concealed or more visible and manifest 1. The mystical or more secret is that where by the elect however different in respect of time place or condition are related to Christ the head and one to another This alwayes continued and thus Christ was ever a head king and husband 2. The more visible Gospel-marriage is when the Saints outwardly congregated are by an open emission of the Spirit first invested from above with new membership and office whereby to become a married wife and they receiving this power from on high do by vertue thereof marry others into the same married body which is further declared in the Cessation Quaere 2. And in this last regard she was not alwayes married For we are to mind that herein there are several seasons times of love and maturity for marriage Ezek. 16.8 and thus it was in the primitive and will be againe at the last when the Church in her external order
to follow the concurrences of the Prophets then to wander with others though never so learned Indeed Mr. Brightman with many that tread in his steps was necessitated to uphold Protestant Churches to tye up in a manner all this last noble work to the Jewish Nation and so to disinterest the Christian Gentiles from this glorious marriage and the City Jerusalem But how then can the stone fill the whole earth Dan. 2.35 or the kingdome under the whole heaven be given to the most high Saints chap. 7.27 or the kingdome of the world become the kingdomes of Christ Rev. 11.15 or the Lord onely reigne therein in all the earth Zech. 14.9 Surely this must be universall to all the Saints wherever inhabiting Object You in the close of this subject wish us to consider this saying of Iraeneus That Prophecies are dark and aenigmatical till fulfilled Answ We agree to the rule of Iraeneus considered with this limitation That prophecies cannot be compleatly known till cleared by the Event and the further off the same time is the greater veil lieth over them But withall we do maintaine that some degree of light may be gathered by viewing the prophecies with their times also by comparing Scripture with Scripture and by minding types and things that are past we may the better conclude what the like allegories represent in matters to come when the Spirit who searcheth all things even the deep things of God directs us in these mysteries Besides some events being gradual and coming one in the neck of another as these of the vials are hang together as it were in one chain in which the beginning presents some aspect of what will be in the end Hence Jeremiah fore-speaking of the day of vials saith chap. 30.23 24. chap. 23.19 20 When the fury of the Lord falls on the head of the wicked figured out by a whirlwind that in the latter daies ye shall consider it and at last perfectly to wit the thoughts and itents of his heart and his great works to come Consideration implyes a comprehension to the same time of that which could not by reason of the covering be considerably known before the Revelation likewise informs us chap. 15.4 That then his judgements are made manifest Moreover this last separation consisteth in the understanding of things past present and to come past as to number the beast from whom they distinguish in his rise foundation and whole latitude present whereby to know the way and walk now approved and to come so as to have an eye to the Saints and Sion and marriage which is terminus ad quem the end scope or resting place which this their passage aimes at A traveller hath some apprehension of the place he travels to Therefore have they their station on a glassie sea Rev. 15.2 and are promised to see eye to eye when the Lord returns again Sion Isa 52.8 This will be fully at the upshot and yet so far for the present as to guide them in their walk and almes Object You further charge against us that these prophecies are subject to various interpretations and that the mistakes and differences of other learned men may teach us not to build such lofty opinions upon c. Answ The plainest texts of Scripture are subject to various nay dissenting interpretations as well as these hence arise so many differences about Episcopacie Presbytery Independencie Poedo baptisme Predestination with innumerable others yet these divided principles ought not to weaken the force of any truths drawn from those texts The same Spirit that reveales the mind of other Scriptures may unclock the mystery of these 2. The cause of such variety and mistakes of the godly in former ages is the veile foretold to be cast over men during the time of tribulation But now the Lord hath promised to remove this covering from his returning people And this will have more force to highten us in searching into these profundities then all the discouragements of men to beat us back If it be true that nihil datur frustra nothing in the ordinary course of providence be vain is it then safe to imagine that the solemn Gospel-promise chap. 1.3 can be a meer empty sound and such as drives men to bare conjectures and trifling probabilities unmeet to lay the weight of any real determinations upon Or is the book opened chap. 10. without any certaine discovery of the mystery therein comprehended Or did the same Spirit which invites to count the beast chap. 13.18 lay insufficient grounds and rules to find out his number Or is that mighty voice and call from heaven chap. 18. Mat. 25.6 void of light and efficacy to dictate what they ought to separate from the way they should walk in and those nuptials they are preparing for We rather believe the sayings of this book to be the true sayings of God chap. 19.9 and to be true and faithfull chap. 22.6 and to contain matters of transcendent worth and solid foundations for knowledge practice and argumentation And though the spirituality thereof lie deep as things of rarest excellency usually do yet such of wisdomes children who are divinely inspired with an understanding Spirit will by vertue of that power assisting them thence draw out those precious truths which will confound and put to silence the wisdome of the world It is very remarkable that the testimony of Jesus in these latter ages is called the Spirit of prophecie chap. 19.10 The reason is because the prophecies hold forth that very dispensation and those Judgements of God proper to our owne generation which rightly teach us how to distinguish the times and to know the things that belong to our peace in this our day the ignorance whereof may occasion the misery of man to be great because he misseth his time This and all your other arguments of the same nature are no other for substance then what were formerly made use of by the Papists and Episcopalists against your selves which have not the least might to dishearten or strip us of our birth-right in this prophecie though coming from Mr. Elmestone I shall wish you for the future either to disprove our interpretation and give a better and clearer sense or forbear to speak evil of what you know not Now come we to your concluding argument specified in the 36 page of your book wherein you lay a high charge against our way and Tenents as if they were against the second and fourth Commandments the three first Petitions and a hinderance to mens salvation Answ We have already removed the violence of all this after-charge in severall passages of this treatise This general return will here suffice in which we utterly deny your accusation and affirme that to follow Christ in the path of separation to exercise in this our journey those ordinances now inspired by his Spirit both in private as also in our publique assemblies especially on the Lords day with a forbearance of the rest for the present
in the fourth and fore-going Paragraph and proved by several Reasons We shall here more amply decipher their nature property and stand out of the three several texts of the Revelations in which the Spirit paints them forth The first is Chap. 7. v. 9. There you may see them not to be whole nations but a great number of or out of nations being chosen from the rest who stand immediately before the throne of grace clothed with white robes of rejoycing praise and virgin-like purity all palms in their hands an ensigne of victory and peace and alluding to the multitude who followed and cried Hosanna when Christ rode up to Jerusalem Mat. 21.8 9. Mark 11.8 9 10. Luke 19.37 38. all which attributes a difference of them from the sealed number and Witnesses before Vers 14 they come out of great tribulation which manifesteth the time to be after the 1260 yeers Vers 15 these for their diligence in holy exercises are said to serve God day and night in his temple their hungering and thirsting no more nor the sun and heat lighting on them v. 16. infers the spiritual famine and affliction they underwent the preceding season from which now they are perpetually freed Their seeding by the lamb their being led to living fountains of water answers to the fertility and springs of water for spiritual strengthning and recreating breaking forth in the wilderness or high-way there to Sion Isa 35.6 7. chap. 41.18 chap. 48.21 chap. 49.9 10. Psal 107.35 and to the precious promises made to the same people Hos 2. from vers 14. to 19. Isa 42.16 The second Scripture is Chap. 14. Vers 1 is a type of the sealed number under Antichristisme expressed chap. 7. from vers 1. to 9. who stand upon the mystical mount of election or grace The separated Saints are presented from vers 2. where they are not onely rejoycers as before but harpers they singing for joy of heart and tuning their sounding instruments of praises Isa 51.11 Psal 98. Isa 42.10 Chap. 30.29 Their song for matter v. 3. is a new song sutable to the new work then created for them Isa 43.19 Chap 42.16.9 10. which was so abstruse and mysterious that none amongst the nations and false stands could truely learn it but the 144000 redeemed from the earth who by degrees will be capable thereof come out and joyn with the harpers Vers 4 these are not defiled with women which notes their separation from all false Churches either of the wilderness or secret chambers for they are virgins preparing for the marriage to come in chap. 19. and as the Lord goes before them so do they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes from vial to vial both in separating from and rewarding of they are not onely redeemed from the earth with the 144000 but also purchased from amongst men which hints at their separation from the rest of the world and being the first thus bought have the honour of being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb. In vers 5 for the pureness and sincerity in their Ministery which brings Divinity up into a Gospel-glory they are said to have no guile in their mouthes for they are without fault before the throne The third text is Chap. 15. v. 2 3 4. in which their victory station and song are more distinctly and accurately described Vers 2 their victory is over the Beast to wit all usurped Hierarchies over consciences whether Romish Episcopal Presbyterial of any other his Image their stated Frames and Ordinances formed according to their carnal imaginations his Mark a subjection thereto from all which the harpers are redeemed and from the number of his name as a people separated in their distinguished assemblies Their stand was on a glassie sea the clear pure bright sensings of Scripture which for the copiousness is called a sea for its perspicuity of glass 2 Cor. 3.18 which is mingled with fire to consume the timber hay and stubble of Antichristian materials 2 Thess 2.18 and to purge the filth of the Saints by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning Isa 4.4 In vers 3 their song is the song of Moses and the Lamb for their outward and spiritual deliverance the substance of which is compendiously drawn out in vers 3 4. the like is declared in Chap. 14.7 c. And these for time arose presently with the Angel-pourers as appears by their being conjoyned together vers 1 2. by their victory and triumphant song which begins with and continues all the series of the vials These judgements and wonders of God have been of late so clearly manifested with us that no man spiritually enlightned can gainsay it Having thus delivered the state of these harpers we shall now acquaint you why your National Churches whether Episcopal or Presbyterial are none of their number They for time arose long before the 1260 yeers of tribulation were ended and were not a selected company out of nations nor redeemed from amongst men but were whole nations good and bad incorporated into one leprous body they were not clothed with white robes of joy praise and purity nor stand immediately before the throne but even the godly amongst them were clothed in sack-cloth stood visibly in the streets of the great city and before earthly Hierarchies who as terrene gods lorded it over them whereby the sun and heat smote them as was too well known in the Bishops times and by the proceedings of others elsewhere both before and since neither are you a growing people with an increase of spiritual nourishment and new rising springs of heavenly refreshings but are declining to more formality and deadness and will daily decrease as the light of Truth increaseth your kingdom grows full of darkness neither do you return from Babylon but sit down in that desart Thus you may take notice how contrary you are to the separated people expressed Chap. 7. Give us leave to shew you how unlike your National Churches ruled by Bishops or Presbyters are to the harpers painted out in Chap. 14. They sing not the new song of triumph over the Beast but the old one of crying him uâ—… and applauding him they stand not immediately before the highest throne but before Classical Provincial and National Synods coming as a medium between and ruling over the conscience they are not virgins in their purity from the Beast nor wait they for the marriage to come nor are undefiled with strange women but are strange women boasting with her Chap. 18.7 that they sit as Queens are already married in their visible constitutions and their members defiled with the same false married Churches they follow not the Lamb in his call of separation but go before him in their own of stating they are not redeemed from amongst men as herein obtaining the honour of the first-fruits in whose mouth is sound no guile but remain bondaged themselves and labour to enthral others as their frequent importuning the Magistrate for power to